According to Al Quaglieri in the What Goes Up!
liner notes, this record was released December 11, 1968 (Columbia 9720).
All Music Guide lists it as January of 1969. Three top five singles came
from the album, "You've Made Me So Very Happy," (Columbia 44776) released
2/15/69 was the first gold single, peaking at #2. The next single,
"More and More/Spinning Wheel," (Columbia 44871) released 6/07/69 also
peaked at #2 and went gold. Finally, released in September of 1969,
the third gold single from the album, "And When I Die/Sometime's In Winter"
(Columbia 45008) was released 10/25/69 and also made #2 by November.
It was the first time since the RIAA started certifying gold records that
an album had spawned three gold singles. The album peaked at #1 on
the U.S. Charts, staying there for seven weeks, going double platinum by
the end of 1969, and stayed on the top 40 for 66 weeks. It is also
available in a Mobile Fidelity Labs Gold Disc, which has recently gone
out of print.

The Grammy's: March 11, 1970 saw BS&T
win Grammy's for Album of theYear,Best
Arrangment (Fred Lipsius for "Spinning Wheel") and Best Contemporary
Instrumental Performance. ("Trois Gymnopedies On A Theme By Erik
Satie.") Despite their pop success, it should be noted that Chicago
has only won Grammy's for a record cover (Chicago X) and Male Pop Vocal
(If you leave me now)David Clayton-Thomas says: "You've Made Me So Very Happy
was one of those songs where I flew into New York from Toronto and it was
the first thing I recorded with Blood, Sweat, and Tears. We walked
out of the recording studio and every band member knew we'd just cut a
hit record. It was just magic from the first note to the last."

Bobby Colomby notes that "Guercio really didn't stick
around for a lot of that record. He left before the thing ws really
done, he lost interest; he hated David, he hated Steve, it was like "these
guys are prima donnas, I can't stand it, I gotta get outta here."

It should also be noted that
James William Guercio only produced the album because Columbia promised
him they would sign and release the first album by the Chicago Transit
Authority.

William Ruhlmann of the All Music Guide writes: Arguably, the BS&T that made this self-titled
second album, consisting of five of the eight original members and four
newcomers, including singer David Clayton-Thomas, was really a different
group from the one that made the debut album, Child is Father to the
Man, which was largely under the direction of singer/songwriter/keyboard
player/arranger Al Kooper. BS&T Mark II had certain similarities
to the original: the musical mixture of classical, jazz, and rock
elements was still apparent, and the interplay between the horns and the
keyboards was still ocurring, even if those instruments were being played
by different people. Kooper was even still present as an arranger
on two of the tracks, notably the initial hit "You've Made Me So Very Happy."
But the second BS&T, under the aegis of producer James William Guercio,
was a less adventurous unit, and, as fronted by Clayton-Thomas, a far more
commercial one. Not only did the album contain three songs that neared
the top of the charts as singles--"Happy," "Spinning Wheel," and "And When
I Die"--but the whole album, including an arrangement of "God Bless The
Child" and the radical rewerite of Traffic's "Smiling Phases," was wonderfaully
accessible. It was a repetoire to build a career on, and BS&T
did exactly that, although they never came close to equalling this album.
[(c)1996 All Music Guide]Return
to the BS&T Discography Page.